Background information about the female condom:
Why is universal access to female condoms urgently needed?
The consequences of the unmet need for contraception. Despite the range of highly effective contraceptive options available, there is nonetheless a great unmet need for contraception, particularly in the developing world. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that there are around 215 million women worldwide who would like to limit or plan the number of children they have, but who are not currently using any form of contraception. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in developing countries, more than one-third of all pregnancies are unintended, with major implications for each child, each woman, each family, and wider repercussions on overall society related to population growth. A fifth of all pregnancies end in induced abortion.2 Of these abortions, more than half is executed by unsafe means. Worldwide, 21,6 million unsafe abortions cause 5 million women to be hospitalized each year, and account for 13 percent of maternal deaths.While global contraceptive prevalence has increased slowly from 55
percent of women of reproductive age in 1990 to 64 percent in 2005, it remains low in sub-Saharan Africa at just 22,8 percent. Meeting the current need for contraception would reduce maternal deaths by around a quarter. Making the female condom available to all women and men would increase the instances of protected sex and thus contribute to the reduction of unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths.